Anyone know if it's possible to access files in a partition with no recognizable file system? I had a computer meltdown and took it in to a shop but they weren't recovery experts and though they told me they could do it... they couldn't. I got it back with one drive and instead of the unpartitioned space I'd sent it away with I now had an extended dos partition. I couldn't access that space and since my only other option is format I thought I'd instead do a little tinkering and created a logical partition. I can now see the drive at least but it's telling me it has no recognizable file system. I know those files are there as it's telling me it's 60% in use I just need to know if there's any way I can retrieve them or should I just give up and reformat. Thanks.

Sounds like you need to do a format. I've done that too many times
in the past, now since i have 2 partitions if something goes wrong i just format the partition that the operating system is on, and pull all data i want to save to D:\

there is a linux OS called Knoppix. It's a bootable CDrom that will in most cases allow you to find what is on the disc. Now if the FS is NTFS, you can copy the files off, but don't expect to be able to use that partition after that. Knoppic will get you into the hdd. It's pretty easy to use so you should give it a try...